Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “shutdown”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “shutdown”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 of the top 20.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

oik bwtrace shows at wp.org #15 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 4 places. Its 20+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Meta for WooCommerce 400K+ · 2.1★ (481) wp.org #1 2 Debug Log Manager Tool 3K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #2 3 C Clear Cache for Me 40K+ · 4.8★ (29) wp.org #3 4 Everest Backup – WordPress Cloud Backup, Migration, Restore & Cloning Plugin 3K+ · 4.4★ (45) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 ReDi Restaurant Reservation – Instant Restaurant Booking & Table Reservation System 700+ · 4.5★ (28) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 L Local Development 80+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 HTTP Requests Manager 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #7 8 Activity Guard – Security Scanner, Activity Log with IP blocking 20+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #9 1 too low 9 Fatal Plugin Auto Deactivator – Never let a plugin break your site 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 FFL Checkout by Texas Technology Group 20+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #21 11 too low 11 Prime Cache – Page Cache on Activation & One-Click Speed Optimization 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too high 12 Log-Hero.com Plugin 40+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too high 13 Delete & Disable Comments 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 14 M MiniCRM Sync for WooCommerce 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 15 OminiFlow for WooCommerce — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 3 too high 16 S Site Pulse 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 17 ZeroFatal – PHP Fatal Error Monitor & Crash Detection — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 18 FatalFlow – WordPress Fatal Error Recovery & SEO Protection 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 oik bwtrace 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too high 20 Errorgap — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 NaveenCodes Safe Mode — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 P Pipe9 WSOD Debugger — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 DebugBundle — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24 CodeTelemetryLab Admin Performance Inspector — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓1 4 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.